Photo courtesy of SirMitchell

I should be occupying my bed right now instead of writing this post.

Over these last few weeks, I’ve been paying close attention to the whole “Occupy Wall Street” movement, and personally I’m rather torn on the issue. I’ve stayed out of the various online debates I’ve seen, mainly because 140 characters isn’t the place to articulate something as nuanced as this. But more importantly, I really don’t have a solid opinion on the matter. I’m certainly not part of the 1%, but am I really in the 99% either? Or the 53%?

As I said, I’m torn. First off, I’m on pace to make more money (legally) this year than I ever have in my entire life. Have I worked my ass off? Damn right I have. I was putting in 100+ hour weeks for most of this year. But is my hard work the only reason I’ve been successful? Hardly. To start, I was fortunate to have parents that thought that education and technology was important, and made sure we (my brother, sister, and myself) had access to it, even though we weren’t wealthy. Also, I was lucky enough to have fallen into a field that is in very high demand right now, with no signs of slowing down. And, to top it off, I seem to have a gift for this nerd stuff. I actually enjoy doing it, and it didn’t take me $50,000 or more in college debt to prove I could do it. And I simply cannot ignore the fact that I am a middle class white male, born and raised in the US. I’ve got opportunities afforded to me that other people simply do not get, and I’m allowed to make mistakes without penalty that others simply cannot. If you don’t believe that, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn you might be interested in purchasing. No money down!

With all that said, I know first hand the damage student loan debt can cause a person. I’m fully convinced that my ex-wife’s massive law school debt (upwards of $170,000) was a large contributing factor to the breakdown of our relationship and eventual divorce. While not the only cause, it didn’t make matters any easier. That debt is something she is going to have to deal with for the next 15-20 years. It was recently reported that the total student loan debt in this country has now passed credit card debt. That’s fucked up, esp since there aren’t many jobs to be had.

But overall, the biggest thing that I keep coming back to is watching folks demonize those who are involved. Not just calling them names, but marginalizing their sheer existence as though they are an overwhelming burden on our society. Sorry folks, but like it or not we made this shitpile and we’ve gotta sit in it. Doesn’t matter what side of the street you’re on, its all our problem now. We’ve allowed ourselves to be run into the ground, and no soapbox rants about “My taxes pay for that!” or “I worked my way through school, so can you!” is gonna change that.I think it would be helpful if we would all acknowledge that even when we work hard, we don’t do it in a vacuum and that we have all benefited from a variety of public policies. This is not to say that these policies are always ideal or efficient, but we can’t have a debate about things like taxes, spending, and regulation unless we start from a place of reality (and that applies to the pie in the sky claims of many of the 99% types as well). No man is an island.

But really. I should probably get some sleep.

So 9/11 came and went. Again. I saw a lot of folks tweeting various things about the event, memories, and the popular #wherewereyou hashtag. I abstained from it. Why? Because while I’m pretty open online, I rarely discuss politics. Online OR in real life. Much like religion (something else I don’t discuss much) it’s a very personal thing for me and not one I feel warrants a discussion. Also, my 9/11 story is uneventful to say the least.

If you’re wondering, here is why I don’t think much about where I was:

I was driving to work that morning, hung over from the night before. I threw up twice on a copy of the Wall Street Journal in my car at two red lights (sadly, this was not the first time that happened, nor would it be the last. I kept the WSJ in my car for that very reason). I was an hour late to work, and this particular hangover was so bad that I lasted 45 minutes at my desk before I called it quits and went home. I was so out of it, I didn’t even notice people listening to the radio and talking about what was going on. If my memory serves me correctly, the first plane had just hit when I showed up to work. The 2nd hit as I was leaving. When I got in my car, I put on some music and drove home. My brother called me and asked if I had seen what had happened. I replied “Umm…some dumbass crashed a plane in New York, right?”. Then he told me what happened. I felt….nothing. Nada. Maybe I was still drunk, I don’t know. But I went home and proceeded to get stoned out of my skull and watch the CNN loop of people running around and shit on fire. Well, that and cartoons. I switched back and forth.

So there ya have it. My amazing 9/11 story. Pretty inspiring, isn’t it? I didn’t write this to take anything away from what happened that day. It was a fucking horrible event and I feel for those who lost loved ones. But this isn’t about 9/11.

So why do I rarely write / tweet about politics? A few reasons.

• I think the entire system is fucked
• I believe most people are set in their beliefs and aren’t looking to be persuaded otherwise, rather, just want to argue
• Most people look for information that validates what they already believe, not the other way around
• It does nothing beneficial for me

For the most part, I’ve stopped following politics completely. It makes me visibly angry at times, and generally frustrated all the of the time. As sad as it may sound, I simply don’t care anymore. Yes, I still pay attention to issues. I still vote. And I still care about the country. But I don’t care about politics, and I have no interest in furthering the divide. Talk to me about WordPress (except the GPL issue, which has become political). Wanna chat about music? Fuck yeah, bring it on. How about weird shit? I’m game. But I don’t give a shit about what John Boehner said about anything. Nor do I care what Harry Reid thinks. I just don’t. Just today, some random person tweeted me saying I was a ‘moron liberal’ for no reason whatsoever. I responded by telling them to die in a fire. Just seemed appropriate.

So the voters in Maine repealed the same sex marriage law. This isn’t the first time a state has either banned gay marriage, or repealed a law on the books. I am serious when I say that I feel ashamed for my fellow man. The fact that people will make the effort to deny others the joy (and frustration) of being with the person they love, in a relationship ‘approved’ by the state is just mind boggling.

This evening I had a conversation on twitter with Lance Haun, who didn’t see it the same way. Not the issue, but the fact that I felt shame over it. After all, I don’t live in Maine, and I certainly didn’t vote to repeal the law, so why should I care? Lance put forth a call to action, to work on improving the human condition instead of feeling shame. I plan on doing both.

Now to be perfectly honest, I don’t know why I care. I’m a middle-class white guy married to a beautiful woman, and have a great son. No one is attempting to remove any of my rights at all. Consider this, however. My wife is part Cuban, so in the past our marriage would have been viewed in a negative light. Her grandmother was disowned for marrying her grandfather (from Cuba), so we aren’t all that far away from that.

Personally, I think NO marriage should be recognized by the state. At all. After all, I do agree with the argument that marriage is defined as a man and a woman. However, that definition comes from the Bible, a book that I don’t give any credence to. I’m not Christian, so the implied morals and rules that come along with it aren’t relevant to me. So if your faith doesn’t agree with the idea of two men or two women getting ‘married’, fine. The states should strictly issue civil unions, and afford all the rights (property, tax, and otherwise) that comes with what we currently attribute to marriage. Then, if your particular faith involves a marriage ceremony, have at it. My ceremony was done on the beach, with family, and no bible was involved.

At the end of the day, I see it as a matter of rights. Rights that voters have said aren’t the same for everyone. I don’t feel OK with the fact that those people share the same blood and soil that I do.

So the heath care debate rages on. While the bullshit about death panels and other nonsense seems to have faded into the background (where it belongs), there still remains one argument that I see repeated over and over again:

“We have the best healthcare in the world”.

Am I the only one who sees the utter fallacy in this argument? If we’ve got the best, then the rest of the world must be damn-near dead. Considering that I don’t know many people who even have a frame of reference, it’s a spotty argument at best.

Some proof? Let me relay a story from today and then ask me how government would make this ‘great’ system worse.

Backstory

My primary care physician (PCP) recently retired, due to having a newborn child. I’ve had a great relationship with this doctor since I started seeing him 3+ years ago, and I was honestly saddened to see him leave. But having a 2 year-old myself, I can understand. So, I jumped through the hoops, found a list of doctors that were (a) on my insurance and (b) taking new patients. Then I asked my son’s pediatrician (whom I trust) for some recommendations, since picking a doctor off a list isn’t the brightest idea. So I got a name, called, and made an appointment. Today was that appointment.

I have a pretty detailed medical history, including some major bone surgeries from my early 20’s that now require a daily NSAID. I also take a medication for my stomach, since I have a family history of acid reflux, and OTC medications don’t work for me (anymore). And, to top it off, I take a medication for ADD. While I’ve had ADD since I was a kid, I didn’t start addressing it until my son was born. I was concerned about being able to focus and pay attention to important things, like feeding schedules, a child running around, etc. Also, I had basically lost the ability to read for anymore than 5 minutes at a time. After that, the words would literally begin to swirl. Certainly not a good thing for one planning on returning to school.

Today’s Visit

So I leave work early so I can get to the doctor’s appt, since this was the earliest time they could see me. I bring the three meds I take with me, so I don’t come across as some random guy begging for pills. Once I fill out the paperwork (one page for medical history, 5 for insurance-related info), I sit. And wait. Almost an hour later, I see the doctor. A nice guy, no problem there. We go over my medical history, then he gives me a short physical. Again, no issue. Then we discuss my medications. Come to find out, he’s not comfortable writing the script for my ADD meds without me having a psychological exam. Mind you, I’ve been on this for over a year. But again, I can understand his situation. What I take (Adderall XR) is considered a controlled substance, so just handing it out to people who ask is a quick way to lose your medical license. So he indicates that once we get that squared away, he’ll determine whether or not to write the prescription. He’s completely within his rights to do so. While annoying, I understand and agree to go through the hoops. Now here comes the frustration.

The Call

Since I’ve never had a psych evaluation, both my new doctor and I aren’t sure how exactly to go about it. So he has one of the nurses place a call to my insurance company. After 25 minutes, 2 hang-ups, and a rude person on the other line, we determine that I need to call a special ‘psychology’ number. So I take the number and go home.

When I get home, I grab the phone, a notepad, and my insurance card. I call and speak to a woman who proceeds to do the following:

1. Explain to me the difference between a doctor and a psychiatrist
2. Why it’s in my best interest to see a psychiatrist on a monthly basis for my ADD meds
3. How my PCP isn’t really qualified to prescribe the meds I’ve been taking

Now I’m a reasonable guy. And I understand rules and protocols. But this is ridiculous. I now have to make an appointment with ANOTHER new doctor, go over my history again, to receive a medication I’m already on. And the kicker? Once I get an appointment, I have to call them back to have them authorize it. Yes, the people who told me I have to go get an appointment have to authorize it after I make one.

Since I’m almost 800 words in, I’ll cut this short. The long and short of it is that my new doctor agreed to write me a one-month script, since the med in question cannot be refilled, and requires a paper prescription from the doctor. This will give me time to go see a shrink, let them evaluate me to again prove that I have ADD, then I can go about my business.

And on a side note, my wife went in and out of the DMV last week in 10 minutes to renew the tags on her car. So the DMV did in 10 minutes what my doctor, a call center, and the ‘best system in the world’ couldn’t do in 3+ hours.

Bring on the socialism.

I am a big fan of Elliott Spitzer. I don’t like Yankees, and I especially don’t care for ones who are probably fans of the baseball team known as the Yankees, but damn is this dude my dude. I am too tired to write about some stuff or crap, but here’s a video that helps you understand why I am super bummed that this guy is not living high on the government mountain. And don’t forget, Joe Scarborough is a scumbag. Hey Joe, guess who’s number one preseason? Not Bama. You suck.

Recently, I started noticing a few billboards on the interstate near my house. One of those “black background / white letters” signs, which we’ve got quite of a few of here in the great progressive state of Florida. So at first, I didn’t pay much attention to them. Then I was sitting in traffic and actually took a moment and read one. I saw this:

Yep. A George Washington quote alluding to the long-held conservative belief that the US is indeed a Christian nation. As a former atheist (not anymore, but that’s another story for another day), seeing this immediately made me clench my jaw. The group, NoSeparation.org, is voicing their disapproval about the ‘lie’ of the separation of church and state, the ‘war on God in America’, and other neocon bullshit that I am forced to deal with on a daily basis.

Here are two fine examples of their ‘campaign’. Now, those quotes would be all well and good if they were, you know, factual or accurate.

The first quote was never said in any printed material by Washington (if you can prove otherwise, by all means let me know).

And according to Wikipedia, the second quote was an excerpt taken from this complete quote:

The central support for the Court’s ultimate conclusion that Congress did not intend the law to cover Christian ministers is its lengthy review of the "mass of organic utterances" establishing that "this is a Christian nation," and which were taken to prove that it could not "be believed that a Congress of the United States intended to make it a misdemeanor for a church of this country to contract for the services of a Christian minister residing in another nation.

But clearly I am biased (and in their eyes, doomed to hell) so I asked someone who I thought could bring some more clarity to the situation: my father.

Why ask my dad? Well, for starters, he’s an ordained minister. Not one of the internet types, but the real deal (so yes, that makes me a preacher’s kid. Queue the stereotypes), been in the God business for over 30 years. He’s also an ethics teacher and an unabashed liberal. Which makes for interesting commentary, to say the least.

I’ll spare you the details of the conversation, if for no other reason that half of it involved either my son or baseball. But what I took away most of all was this: “Faith is critical, but don’t take this religion stuff too seriously.”

Am I going to give them much more thought? No. And I respect their right to say it, as incorrect as it may be. And thanks to Cooper over at Wonderland or Not, I leave you with this Kiekegaard quote:

“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.

I’ve done my best to stay out of the current debate regarding health care reform. Although I’ve tweeted a few things and made some comments on other people’s blogs, I’ve remained relatively silent. In part because I don’t have the time to argue, and also because all the arguments boil down to one specific idea: is universal access to health care, regardless of age / income / race / class, a right? Personally, I say yes, it should be. If we are consider ourselves the leaders of the ‘modern’ world, then we should be more than willing to take care of our citizens, and it not be based on the ‘free market’ or competition. End of story.

I know this isn’t the only issue regarding the debate (if you mention ‘death panels’, I’ll punch you in the throat. Seriously), but it seems to me that at the core, this is what it comes down to. Yes, people make valid claims on both sides regarding how different states have different regulatory setups, making it a nightmare to get a standard setup. And there’s also the little fact about how most of the big insurance companies have 1 or more members of Congress in their respective lobbyist’s pockets. It’s a mess, a broken system that is getting worse.

The American Prospect recently posted an article titled “The 10 Dumbest Arguments Against Health-Care Reform”. It’s a good read, and one that I would suggest folks on both sides of the debate read.

And then ask yourself. Do you think it is a right, or not?

I always talk about getting rid of cable. Unfortunately, I never get around to it because I have little interest in dropping off the box. And, I have a routine in the morning where I watch Morning Joe on MSNBC. It’s actually a pretty terrible habit if you think about it. But, like all reasonably obsessive compulsive people, I have a hard time breaking habits.

Anyways, I always complain about Morning Joe because the pundit banter is pretty obnoxious and I think Joe Scarborough is a tool. Here’s a guy who went to UF but roots for Bama. That’s like doing a tour of duty in Iraq and going “you know what bro, I just root for Al Queda. I like where their heads’ are at and I think they’ve got a good tradition going on.”

So based on the above example, it’s clear that when watching Morning Joe, you are dealing with a complete boner of a host. As such, there are often many guests who are of the same caliber. Jim Cramer is one of them.

Jim Cramer got his first big break as a journalist by covering the Ted Bundy murders in Tallahassee. In other words, he lived in Tallahassee, which means he probably likes FSU. Hey buddy, you know why you’re bald? It’s not genetics, it’s the Lord’s way of telling you that FSU sucks and you suck for being even remotely associated with them.

Weirdly enough though, these two dipshits got something right this morning. They were talking about health care and Jim Cramer made an excellent point about the social forces that were dictating the debate and could ultimately lead to its defeat. Jim more or less explains that the people who don’t want to raise taxes on the rich are not necessarily the rich, but the average Americans who somehow think they’re going to eventually become rich. Jim goes on to explain that he’s already a millionaire and really doesn’t give a shit if they raise his taxes by a percent or two if it would save the health care system, and potentially save a whole slew of other things being paid for by the federal government. He alludes to the fact that the real problem you have is that too many people in America think they’re going to become millionaires and don’t want to be taxed more once they get there. And! Joe kind of agreed with him by regaling the panel with ridiculous stories from his youth about driving around in the panhandle and wondering how he could live in the big houses on the water and was told that all he had to do was go to school and work real hard and become a congressman and then quit and then get a tv show and then root for Bama even though the school that give him a good education was UF. Fuck you Joe. You’re a dick and I want that diploma back.

Anyway, I’m getting away from their point.

Their real point was that wanting to be a millionaire is cool, but not very likely. I agree with this.

I am not a millionaire, but would like to be. If I were to get there, I wouldn’t mind paying an extra one percent tax for other people’s health care. I’m not the most sympathetic or empathetic person, but it seems reasonable enough. So, Joe or Jim, can you guys show me where I can make a million dollars? I’m not asking for a lottery ticket bro. Just a shot at the big time. Joe, you owe me. You sold out the gator nation and I hate you.

While I could certainly say a lot about my opinions regarding Sarah Palin’s abrupt resignation, I’ll keep it to myself. However, my friend Matt said something that I feel needs to be shared:

Also, I just want to make a point about her crazy speech about quitting. She made an analogy about being like a point guard who knows when to pass the ball, instead of trying to always score, which is why she’s quitting. Um, as a very big basketball fan and someone who’s taken and passed a few college Literature classes, I really resent the analogy. If she really were the point guard, which you could argue as governor is the case, then the issue of passing the ball or scoring yourself is not comparable to quitting your job. If you pass the ball, you’re still in the game. Taking yourself out of a game is not being an effective point guard, that’s being an asshole.

Well said my friend.

If you’re somewhat active on Twitter, I’m sure you’ve seen the constant updates regarding the issue in Iran (for those that aren’t aware…well…look it up. It’s kinda big). You also may have noticed that many of the user avatars having a nice green overlay to them. It’s to support democracy in Iran, or so I’ve heard. While the gesture is nice, I think people are missing the point. Whether it’s green icons, a ribbon sticker on your car, or any other adoption of a cause, the simple acts people take do not give it any more credence.

I love sarcastic comedy, that’s not a secret. And when I say this twitter update from Michael Ian Black regarding Iran, I couldn’t help but laugh.

The point is this: if you want to make a difference, then do it. I highly doubt that any of the current leaders in Iran noticed the sea of green avatars and decided to change their views on democracy. I also didn’t see the issue (as of yet) get resolved in the way many folks were clammoring for. Greg Graffin put it well back in December 1998 in an essay titled “Web-Surdites” (original link not available, fan page listed here). In short,

The internet is so anonymous, and such a poor gauge of the emotional status of its users, that it is hard to verify if the words and pictures you are seeing were even generated by a human being at all.

Let us not blunder and assume that behaviors such as protest marches, sit-ins, benefit concerts, lectures, and other social gatherings can be reduced to electronic media that effectively filter out all human emotional connections. How do we measure the seriousness of a cause? We see it and experience it with our senses.

It was correct in 1998, and it’s still correct now. There are many people out there that are actively involved in a cause that they believe in, both foreign and domestic. But to do some small gesture electronically, then go about your day, seems to be a bit empty.